Dr. Sara Wadia-Fascetti named Director of Northeastern’s ADVANCE Program
Dr. Sara Wadia-Fascetti, who has served as Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement since 2005, will assume the role of Director of ADVANCE and Special Assistant to the Provost for Faculty Development, effective immediately. As Director of ADVANCE, Dr. Wadia-Fascetti will oversee Northeastern’s five-year, NSF-funded initiative to increase the representation of women faculty and foster women as academic leaders in fields of engineering and the physical and social sciences, while continuing her work with the Office of the Provost on University-wide initiatives directed toward faculty mentoring and development.
Dr. Wadia-Fascetti, whose scholarship is in the area of civil infrastructure diagnostics, has authored or co-authored more than 40 journal and conference publications and is a member of the editorial board of the American Society of Civil Engineering’s Journal of Infrastructure Systems. At Northeastern she is a leader of a number of significant infrastructure-related research initiatives that partner Northeastern University with other leading institutions. As a member of the Gordon-CENSSIS Executive Committee, she is developing the Center’s research thrust in the area of civil infrastructure diagnostics.
Dr. Wadia-Fascetti has been a member of Northeastern’s faculty since 1994. Her leadership roles in the College of Engineering have included serving as the Graduate Director for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and as Director of the Doctoral Trainee Program in Intelligent Diagnostics for Civil Infrastructure Assessment. Her national honors include an NSF Career Award (1997), the American Society of Engineering Education’s Minorities in Education Award (2002), the American Society of Engineering Education’s Sharon Keillor Women in Engineering Education Award (2006), and a 2002 Presidential Award, conferred at the White House, for Excellence in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Mentoring.
As Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, Dr. Wadia-Fascetti expanded the University-wide faculty mentoring program; oversaw the approval of a revised tenure clock extension policy through all levels of University review; and initiated new grant funds, through the Office of the Provost, for faculty advancement and faculty leadership development. Dr. Wadia-Fascetti worked for several years to assemble the multidisciplinary team responsible for Northeastern’s successful ADVANCE Institutional Transformation proposal.
I am delighted that Dr. Wadia-Fascetti will assume the directorship of one of the University’s most important and visible academic initiatives.